Lamia
The Lamia are a reptilian liminal race with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake. A mono-gendered (female) demi-human race, Lamias are predatory carnivores that form tribal villages on the outskirts of desert oases, their serpentine tails are powerful enough to rend steel. Culture Believed to be deadly towards humans, Lamia are reputed to lure men back to their lairs and kill them after they've had their way with them. However, this is only partially true, as due to being a female-only race, Lamias would lure men to their villages and hold them as 'Communal Husbands'. If the male is resistant, Lamia will use alchemical compounds such as incense to draw out their lust and force themselves upon them. Usually all the eligible members of the village would get involved, resulting in mass orgies. Following the initial orgy, the male has a choice to voluntarily stay or leave. According to some, the men usually choose to stay, due to the beauty and sexual skills of the lamias. Biology *Lamia are Poikilotherms; organisms that do not have a stable internal temperature and must rely on external sources to maintain a healthy body temperature. As such, they are extremely vulnerable to cold temperatures and will either fall into hibernation and/or die if left exposed to low temperatures for too long. **The tip of a lamia's tail is an extremely sensitive erogenous zone. *Lamias posses a sensory organ similar to pitvipers that allows them to see heat signatures. With it, they can follow the heat signature of their prey even in the dark. *As carnivores, lamia have twenty times less the number of taste buds as omnivores (e.g. humans), while omnivores generally have half as many taste buds as herbivores (e.g. Centaurs). *Lamia will shed their skin once in a while, just like regular snakes. Interestingly, Lamias find being seen skin shedding to be more embarrassing than being seen naked, much like most snakes finding some place private to shed, and will lash out if someone attempts to handle them, though that's mainly because when snake shed, their eyesight becomes temporarily compromised. *Lamias have a special food preference for eggs, which can be in reference to snakes that evolved an egg-specific diet. *Given that they are part snake, Lamia can also go without food for several days. *As an evolutionary fall-back to their snake-origins, a Lamia's tongue is very long in length and has a naturally "forked" tip. Like a snake, the tip of a Lamia's tongue possesses the Jacobson’s organ, a sensory organ that allows a Lamia to detect smells in the air. **This tongue is also prehensile to a degree, just like a human's; and like snakes, lamia may stick out their tongues as a result of delicious smells in the air. Skills/Abilities * Lamia are very skilled poison users and chemists. * Lamias are also very skilled belly dancers, due to their lower bodies. * Despite having a tail for a lower half of their body, they are able to change them into human legs, merely to help humans feel comfortable around and for fashion attire reasons. Subspecies Echidnas Gorgons Gorgons, or famously called Medusa, are a subspecies of Lamia with snakes for hair. In mythology, their gaze are said to turn creatures into stone, but in reality they possess no such ability. However, their gaze does seem to be very keen, and their glare makes living creatures unable to move, as though they indeed have been turned to stone. This is due to the fact that they have poor eyesight. They only appear to be glaring as they are only trying to see more clearly. Because their hair is made of snakes they are tragically troubled by the fact that they can't change their hairstyle Melusine Known Members Gallery Trivia * The Lamia race consists of only females, thus in order to breed, they must mate with human men. ** Lamia mating can take around 6-10 hours on average. Due to this, a Lamia's partner seldom has the stamina to keep up with them. If a man lingers or hesitates once sexual intercourse is finished, he is considered engaged to that Lamia. *The Lamia, much like the Arachne, are inspired by Greek mythology via a godly-cursed individual. Lamia was the queen of Libya who was also a mistress of Zeus. This automatically earned her the ire of Hera, Zeus' wife, who killed Lamia's children and then transformed her into a child-eating demon. Her name is supposedly derived from the Greek word for "gullet" (λαιμός, laimos), which is a reference to her habit of eating children. The depiction of Lamia with a snake's tail is from a 1819 poem by English poet John Keats and has since become the common depiction of Lamia in other forms of media, though the imagery often clashes with the Gorgons, hence why they (Gorgon) are considered in Monster Musume as a lamia subspecies. Category:Monster Species Category:Lamias